Gov. Lee's priorities point to progress

"We have a changing workforce landscape in this country and certainly in this state," Lee said at the Tennessee Press Association's annual luncheon Thursday. "We need to create and adapt our education system to meet that changing need."

He is building upon the work of former Gov. Phil Bredesen, who laid down key groundwork in education, and former Gov. Bill Haslam, who launched the Tennessee Promise and TN Reconnect programs to provide free community college, respectively, to high school graduates and adults wanting to return to school.

“A lot of smaller metros inherently have challenges because they have lower education levels and less differentiated economies,” said Mark Muro, co-author of the Brookings report on automation and AI. “Rural places have been hit hard through the whole decade and are really struggling with making this decision.”

Muro said people who have a bachelor’s degree, for example, will likely be able to manage the changing work landscape.

Unfortunately, most people don’t have a bachelor's degree. The national figure is 30.9 percent, and in Tennessee, it’s 26.1 percent, according to 2017 census figures. Those figures are significantly lower in the African-American and Hispanic community or among low-income individuals.

Tennessee’s advantages as a low-tax, business-friendly state create immediate opportunities for people prepared to take them, be it for employers like Amazon, Ernst & Young and AllianceBernstein coming to Nashville, or for existing companies like General Motors or Volkswagen expanding their operations in Tennessee.

Those people include college or technical school graduates from many of the esteemed institutions in Tennessee, skilled professionals at other local companies who might be poached by new employers, and talent coming from out of state.

A Leon County sheriff's deputy in Florida shoots a family's dog in its own yard while visiting without telling family members to just put him up or on a leash. The cartoonist's homepage, tallahassee.com/opinion Nathan Archer, Tallahassee Democrat

The farm bill, which included stricter work requirements for receiving food stamps, failed May 18, 2018, in the House of Representatives. The cartoonist's homepage, freep.com/opinion/mike-thompson Mike Thompson, Detroit Free Press

Brookings makes five recommendations to help communities navigate through the changes. They revolve around helping workers adapt, grow and innovate:

Embrace growth and technology

Promote constant learning mindset

Facilitate smoother adjustment

Reduce hardships for workers

Mitigate local hardships

Kristin Sharp, director of the nonpartisan think tank New America’s initiative on work, workers and technology, said more data is needed on how successfully workers do to adapt to automation and AI, but retraining efforts have fallen short.

“There’s a lot of experimentation. Nobody’s cracked the code," she said.

“People would be willing to retrain if they knew what that would give them at the end of the program," she added.

Workers who are discouraged may fall out of the labor force or remain underemployed and vulnerable to future shifts in work.

Ralph Schulz, president and CEO of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, said there is a responsibility among the public and private sectors as well as educational institutions to point students in the right direction.

“The institutions have a responsibility to alter their curricula to where the opportunities are appearing,” he said. "Students have to have an awareness of the opportunities.

“We need to promote to people that they need to continue to invest in their institutions as well as for the state and institutions allowing them to have access."

As automation and artificial intelligence continue having an impact on work, employers, workers and educational institutions must be constantly adapting and investing in their existing and future talent.

They must urgently strive to create a more level playing field for people who want a good-paying, fulfilling job to help support themselves and their families.

The consequence will be an ever-accelerating income inequality gap that is detrimental to a healthy society.

David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee and an editorial board member of The Tennessean. Call him at 615-259-8063, email him at dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet to him at @davidplazas.

Town hall

What: Tipping Point: Amazon and the Future of Nashville, hosted by Stand Up Nashville